Vladimir Galitzine
Prince Vladimir Emanuelovich Galitzine was a Russian émigré who lived in England. He was the Chairman of the Russian Society of Support to Russian Emigrants in England.
Early life
Galitzine was born on 17 June 1884 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was one of four children born of Prince Emanuel Vasilievich Galitzine and, his second wife, Ekaterina Nikolaevna Gordeeva. His father served in the Life Guards Horse-Grenadier Regiment. Vladimir and his elder brother, Nikolai, became orphans at a very early age and were brought up by their maternal uncle, Nikolai Gordeev and Valentina Sergeevna as they had no children of their own. Gordeev served as vice-governor of Riazan, governor of the Polish town of Płock, and governor of Kursk from 1903 until his death in 1906. After Gordeev's death, Valentina Sergeevna went to the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent and gave the Yakshino estate in Tula to Prince Nikolai and Prince Vladimir.His paternal grandparents were Prince Vasili Sergeevich Galitzine, aide-de-camp to Emperor Alexander I, and Countess Adelaïda Pavlovna Stroganova and granddaughter of Prince Vladimir Borisovich Golitsyn and Natalya Golitsyna. In 1845, his grandmother inherited the Maryino Estate, a vast estate in the province of Novgorod, from her mother. The estate was later inherited by her eldest son Prince Pavel Vasilievich Galitzine and his descendants.
Career
In 1907, Prince Galitzine graduated with honours from the Imperial Lyceum in Moscow. He then moved to St. Petersburg and enlisted as a volunteer in the Horse-Guards Regiment of The Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna; soon he passed his exams and become an officer. On the eve of the World War I, he was invited to become aide-de-camp to the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, commander in chief of the Imperial Russian Army up until 1915, then Viceroy to the Caucasus. Galitzine emigrated from post Revolutionary Russia in June 1919, arranged by his aunt, Princess Helen of Saxe-Altenburg on a British Naval vessel HMS Grafton from Novorossiysk, in 1921. They stayed for fourteen years before moving into a house at 131 Croxted Road in West Dulwich, London.Personal life
In 1912, Prince Galitzine was married to Countess Ekaterina "Katia" Georgievna Carlow. Born at Oranienbaum, Russia, Katia was the eldest daughter of the morganatic marriage of Duke Georg Alexander of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Countess Natalia Feodorovna Vanljarskya, she was also distantly related to the Princess Marina, the Duchess of Kent. Together, they were the parents of:- Nikolai "Nicholas" Vladimirovich Galitzine, who married Elizabeth Branch, a daughter of Cyril Denzil Branch, in 1946. They divorced in 1951 and he married Anita Frisch, a daughter of Harald Frisch, in 1956.
- George Vladimirovich Galitzine, who married Baroness Anne Marie von Slatin, a daughter of Maj.-Gen. Sir Rudolf von Slatin, in 1943. He later married British fashion model Jean Dawnay in 1963.
- Emanuel Vladimirovich Galitzine, who married Gwendoline Rhodes, a daughter of Capt. Stanley Rhodes of Donaghadee, County Down, Northern Ireland, in 1942. His Obituary with details of his family escape from Russia and his part in WW2 as a volunteer during The Winter War in Finland shown in the Picture Post magazine and his time as a Spitfire pilot is found in The Daily Telegraph 9th Jan 2003.
Prince Galitzine died on 13 July 1954 in a nursing home in London. He was buried at Brompton Cemetery in West Brompton. His widow died in London on 13 April 1976.